3/29/20:
American life continues to slow and, in some areas, grind to a halt. As of
11:13 a.m. Sunday, Johns Hopkins University tallied 125,313 cases of the
COVID-19 virus in the United States.
____________________
“Ill-informed,
misleading, or downright wrong.”
Time magazine
____________________
By 3:47 p.m. this
afternoon, that tally was badly out of date:
Once again, we should
remind everyone, that would be roughly 137,279 fewer cases than Dr. Zero (President
Donald J. Trump) predicted we’d have on February 26.
A second website has us with 2,246 deaths and 2,666
patients in serious or critical condition in the morning.
When I check back at
5:40 this afternoon (the two websites update at different times), we have 2,248
dead and 2,948 in serious or critical condition.
He tells Mike Pence not to call.
Nor is the virus in
any way contained. Kansas, Alaska, and Rhode Island have joined 24 states and
Washington D.C. in putting “stay at home” rules in place. In Florida, where the
governor has been reluctant to shut everything down, the total number of cases stands at 4,950 as
of Sunday. In Washington State, where the largest outbreak first occurred,
strong measures have slowed the spread – and 4,312 cases have been confirmed. In
Ohio, where the governor acted quickly, the spread has been slowed. As of
Sunday afternoon the state has 1,653 confirmed cases and only 29 deaths,
or one fatality for every 57 patients. Friday, we learned, by way of Dr. Zero,
that when governors criticize him, he tells Mike Pence – head of his coronavirus-fighting team – not to call. For example, the Democratic governor of
Michigan.
Or, to put it
plainly: when Dr. Zero is in a snit he doesn’t care what happens to the
American people.
Because his feelings
have been bruised.
As of Saturday,
Michigan had 4,659 cases and 111 deaths; but, hey, don’t call the governor.
She’s mean.
Hardest hit states, not counting those mentioned
already: New York (53,520), New Jersey (11,124), California (5,683),
Massachusetts (4,257), Illinois (3,495), Louisiana (3,315), Pennsylvania
(2,845), Texas (2,494), Georgia (2,446) Colorado (2,061), Connecticut (1,524)
and Tennessee (1,511). Alabama now has more than 700 cases, and nearly 4,600 people have been
tested. For the first time, an infant infected with the COVID-19 virus has
died, a child in Illinois, whereas the virus had heretofore seemed not to
affect children one-year-old or younger.
Even worse, President
Knucklehead continues to blunder. Saturday morning, he said he would probably issue
an “enforceable quarantine order” cutting off travel from New York, New Jersey
and Connecticut and neighboring states. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York pushed
back on the plan, calling it “a declaration of war on states.” All three
governors told reporters that while they had spoken to the president earlier, he
had said nothing about a quarantine. In a Saturday press conference, Gov.
Phil Murphy of New Jersey, told reporters, “I literally saw
the story as I was walking into this room. I’ve got no more color on it.”
Apparently, someone
pulled Dr. Zero aside the same day, noting such inconsistencies as
these: Massachusetts had more cases than Connecticut. So why not include the
Bay State in any quarantine? What about Pennsylvania? It borders New York State
– in case President Trump doesn’t realize (and you wouldn’t
be surprised if he doesn’t’) – and it also had
more cases than Connecticut.
As a result, by Saturday
afternoon, Dr. Zero had abandoned another one of his half-baked plans.
Governors from several
states picked up the slack. Texas was ordering travelers from New York to
self-quarantine if they came for a visit. Texas Department of Public Safety
agents would make surprise visits to ensure travelers observed the rules. Those
who failed to do so could face fines of up to $1,000 and six months in jail. Florida
was asking travelers from New York and several other states to quarantine – but as Florida’s case numbers exploded over the weekend, you
had to assume turnabout might be fair play.
On the Sunday
morning talk show circuit, Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed Trump for our national predicament.
His “denial of the danger at the beginning was deadly,” she said. Noting that she had not talked directly with
the president in a month, but had worked closely with Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin on the bailout package, she added, “Don’t fiddle while people die, Mr.
President.”
Last,
but not least, Secretary Mnuchin promised on Face the Nation this morning that we would all be getting our
bailout checks (he won’t call them that) sometime in the next three weeks.
*
THE PRESIDENT has found one silver lining during the pandemic. His press conference
ratings, he bragged Sunday, were great. In a tweet he quoted a story from Time
that noted his audiences for his daily coronavirus briefings were averaging 8.5
million, roughly the same as for Monday Night Football, or for the season finale
of The Bachelor. Yes, Trump was a “ratings hit” again!
Trump left out the part where the Time reporter notes
that the president “has repeatedly delivered information that doctors and
public health officials have called ill-informed, misleading, or downright
wrong.” (See: 4/3/20.)
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